Give Them Spaghetti Instead

People love to bounce ideas off one another. Reason being is that they are looking for bits of reassurance.

I’d encourage you to give them spaghetti instead; it’s something they can take and throw at the wall themselves.

Worth noting: it requires you to listen and still be empathetic; to give them spaghetti that has a great chance of sticking. A far more valuable and rare offering than reassurance.

Stay Positive & Bon Appétit

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People Want You To Show Up (Consistently)

Consistency is the key to loyalty.

Consistency is the key to word of mouth marketing.

Consistency is the key to creating meaningful change.

Consistency doesn’t always get the spotlight it deserves. It also likes to hide itself behind fancy words like “innovation” “avant-garde” and “new.”

Here’s the thing about consistency: even the inconsistent can be about consistency.

One brewery says it will never brew the same style twice. It’s inconsistent, yes, but their inconsistency is consistent.

The coffee shop chooses to treat different people differently. It’s inconsistent, yes, but their inconsistency is consistent.

You can still innovate, try new things and create meaningful change by being consistent.

Stay Positive & See You Tomorrow, Too?

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Noticed

To get noticed you need to do something that’s noticeable (obvious, I know).

The oxymoron, if you will, is that to do something that’s noticeable, you have to not do it to be noticed.

Do remarkable work for the sake of doing remarkable work.

The problem with attention is that it’s really easy to get when you want it, but it doesn’t last.

The great element about attention that leads to loyalty is that the work you do has to be something people won’t get desensitized by – and that’s only done when you don’t do it for the attention; when they can feel your heart in it; when they choose to be a spectator (not when they are interrupted to be one).

Stay Positive & Do Work Worth Being Noticed First

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The Number To Tell Yourself

This isn’t a strategy about how much is too much or how little is too little.

This is a strategy to get started.

That strategy being one where you go through the numbers until you land on one that convinces you to get started.

I’m just going to run a mile, not five.

I’m just going to work on this assignment for five minutes, not fifty.

I’m just going to write a few ideas down, not spend an hour on it.

If the number you’re telling yourself makes you bawk, tell yourself a different number.

Stay Positive & This What What They Mean When They Say It’s A Numbers Game

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Who Is To Blame?

Chances are you can think of more than one person to blame for how something didn’t go your way.

So, the challenge is this: List them.

How many can you assign blame to? When does the list get exhausted? At what point down the list of names do you go until you finally acknowledge accountability and put your own name down?

The faster we can get to that step, the faster we can learn from it and move on.

Go ahead and make your list – and take a page out of Santa’s playbook and check it twice, especially if you’re not seeing yours on it.

Stay Positive & Reflect Yourself Forward

HT: to the cop that gave me a speeding ticket yesterday.

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Legs Of Its Own

That’s the heart of the goal for any project worth doing: it takes on a life of its own.

There will be a time that it doesn’t need you anymore because rich ideas spread.

Which, let’s play it out with the project you’re working on… it succeeds, grows legs and traverses the world on its own.

Outside of the impact it’s making (you’ve made!) on the world, you now have freedom.

Freedom to do whatever you want.

Maybe you try to hold on to your work needing you to encourage or nourish it. Maybe you take some well-deserved R&R. Maybe… just maybe, you start something new again.

Stay Positive & It’s Worth Having An Idea Of What You’ll Do In Advance

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Assigning To Understand

We assign labels to help us understand the assigned.

Not that we’re right. Not that we’ll die on the sword to keep the label as it is.

But to keep a “misc” budget line item or calling a situation an anomaly or to toss some widget into your junk drawer is to hide from the truth: maybe you don’t actually need that thing.

Or better yet, understanding it will force you to actually put it to use.

Stay Positive & Hard To Act Before We Understand

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